House bill wants to criminalize work safety violations, impose harsher penalties
MANILA, Philippines — A bill has been filed at the lower house seeking to criminalize and impose penalties on those who violate the occupational safety and health (OSH) standards law.
Rep. Arlene Brosas (GABRIELA Women’s Party), along with other lawmakers of the Makabayan bloc, filed House Bill 2126 on Tuesday following reports of a dozen workplace-related deaths over the past weeks.
“Our bill enumerated the gross violations of OSH Law which can be penalized by fines or imprisonment or both, including failure to heed the Labor department’s compliance order, failure to hold OSH trainings, failure to designate safety officers, and failure to secure a fire safety certificate,” Brosas said in a statement on Tuesday.
Under the proposed bill, employers may be jailed for up to 12 years if they were found guilty of violating the OSH standards law which then resulted to a death of any of their employees. The company’s president, vice president, chief executive officer, general manager, managing director or partner may face jail time as well for gross violations of the law.
The bill also seeks to penalize employers with fines from P1 million to P3 million, on top of the possibility of losing their business permits if they were found guilty of repeated violations.
Employers will also not be allowed to require or coerce employees into signing waivers or affidavits of desistance from pursuing legal actions against their employers.
12 deaths in six weeks
The bill comes after 12 employees died while conducting work duties over the past six weeks.
This includes three workers in Bulacan who died after their building collapsed in May and a contractual employee of food and snacks firm Universal Robina died last month while cleaning one of their machines.
This month, two maintenance employees died while they were fixing the elevator at Burgundy Corporate Tower. Just last week, six workers died at a construction site in Tagaytay after a concrete wall next to their barracks collapsed.
“Even with the enactment of the OSH Law, employers continue to neglect workers’ health and safety which often lead to injuries and death. That is why we need to introduce stiffer penalties and imprisonment in the law,” Brosas said.
“Dapat may makulong sa pagkamatay ng mga manggagawa sa pagawaan.”
(Someone should be jailed for the deaths of employees in workplaces.)
READ: Congress bicam passes workers’ safety bill
‘Penalties, imprisonment crucial to prevent workplace accidents’
Meanwhile, non-governmental organization Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) said a more stringent policy that holds employers accountable is important in implementing the OSH standards law.
The organization added that criminalizing OSH standards violations would also “send a strong message to employers.”
“Workers do not work to die. Businessmen should keep in mind that pursuing higher profits should never mean violations of workers’ rights and workers’ deaths,” IOHSAD Executive Director Nadia de Leon said in a separate statement. — with a report from Franco Luna
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